How the Cancel Culture is Toxic for Our Mental Health
In the past couple of years or so the term “canceled” has taken off on social media and has been coined as a term of power. While canceled could be another word for boycott it has become a toxic action that is affecting our mental health. Stay with me through this journey LOL
So, what is “being canceled”? Being canceled is when someone or a group decides to stop supporting a person, place, or thing based off a negative event or action that has taken place. It started off with celebrities, but it has transitioned into normal life as well. Here is a list some people or companies that have been canceled in the past:
1. HM for their controversy photo shoot with an African boy in a monkey sweatshirt; they apologized and took the photo down.
2. Gucci for their distasteful black ski masked with red lined around the mouth imitating “blackface”; apologized, took the item down, had a whole cultural meeting for more understanding
3. Kanye West for his political views about Donald Trump as well as saying “slavery was a choice”; he apologized for the comment
4. Recently, a cancellation is in progress for Megan the Stallion for her homophobic tweets years ago when she was in high school; she apologized
So now that you are up to speed on people and companies getting canceled; is being canceled right or toxic? It’s actually both and I am going to explain.
Cancel culture is teaching everyone one thing: if someone does something wrong, stop supporting them. Forget if they apologize or try to correct their behaviors, they should’ve known before doing it. Sounds stupid right? Listen, if we all had that mentality throughout our lives then our parents should’ve canceled us when we peed in our underwear while potty training, when we got our 1st F, to sneaking out the house. If our parents would’ve canceled us instead of giving us 2nd, 3rd, 15th chances where would we be? How can we ask for people to accept our growth as well accept people that continue to hurt us or never offered an apology when we won’t give public figures the same courtesy…. because they human too remember? Did that hurt? I hope it did because we are tripping with this cancel culture nonsense!
At the end of the day, cancel culture is toxic for our mental health because it doesn’t allow us to be human and make mistakes as well as learning how to give people 2nd chances and forgive them. At this rate, celebrities are afraid of old tweets from when they were not as wise resurface and tank their whole career or making any human mistake without their fans giving up on them.
Anxiety and Depression is at it’s all time high with the cancel culture because it can be very isolating and lonely as you feel everyone gave up on you before you could even apologize or correct your mistakes.
Let me give some reminders of how we should treat others and not cancel them all the time:
1. Allow them to own their mistakes and correct them
2. Forgive them if they apologize
3. Make sure to not be that pot calling out that kettle because you too have made mistakes and you were allowed to live your life
4. If they continue to do the same thing and not be apologetic, then cancelling may be best for you
5. Don’t fall into the cancel culture because it’s the popular thing to do; it creates more unhealthy spaces for us in the social media world. Do your own research about the situation and what actions have been taken before jumping on the band wagon.
Because hey at the end of the day; we all tend to move on to something else. People are back to shopping at Gucci, HM is doing well, people are waiting for the new Yeezys or his new song on the show Tales to release, and Megan the Stallion is still killing her shows…. all this cancel nonsense for no reason!
